---
title: DeepSeek
url: https://arcana.otnelhq.com/docs/providers/deepseek
---

# DeepSeek



DeepSeek offers some of the cheapest and most capable models for coding. Strong performance at a fraction of the cost of frontier providers.




## Setup



```bash
# 1. Get your API key from https://platform.deepseek.com/
export DEEPSEEK_API_KEY=sk-...

# 2. Verify detection
arcana doctor

# 3. Run
arcana run "hello"
```




## Available Models



| Model | Context | Best For |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `deepseek-chat` | 128K | General purpose, coding, very cheap |
| `deepseek-reasoner` | 128K | Deep reasoning, math, complex analysis |




## Config File



```json
{
  "provider": "deepseek",
  "model": "deepseek-chat"
}
```




## Environment Variables



| Variable | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `DEEPSEEK_API_KEY` | Your DeepSeek API key (required) |




## Pricing Notes



DeepSeek is extremely affordable. Approximate costs per 1M tokens:



| Model | Input | Output |
| --- | --- | --- |
| deepseek-chat | $0.14 | $0.28 |
| deepseek-reasoner | $0.55 | $2.19 |




## Tips



- `deepseek-chat` is excellent for everyday coding at extremely low cost
- Use `deepseek-reasoner` for complex reasoning tasks — much cheaper than o1 or Claude Opus
- DeepSeek models are OpenAI-compatible — they work with OpenAI client libraries
- Great choice as a utility model for extraction and compaction tasks